Aktos – a leading system of record for modern debt collections agencies – recently announced that it has raised $4.4 million in Seed funding co-led by 8VC and Crew Capital. And the new capital will be used to accelerate the company’s mission to build a modern AI-powered operating system for the $20 billion debt collection industry.
The company’s cloud-native fintech-first software platform is quickly becoming the leading platform for forward-thinking third-party debt collection agencies. And its software manages the end-to-end accounts receivable management (ARM) workflow for debt collectors, including everything from consumer communications and compliance to payments and invoicing. Even though debt collection agencies have historically been resigned to relying on complex and specialized software, Aktos is reshaping the industry by providing debt collectors with a platform that combines intuitive user-friendliness with enterprise readiness that can serve agencies of all sizes.
Agencies have been facing ballooning costs from having to hire scores of administrative staff to plug operational holes caused by legacy software which results in lost productivity. And this pressures margins and creates redundant menial work for employees. Agencies’ legacy software does not meet consumers in their preferred communication channels, which is increasingly email, text, and chat. Instead, agencies are forced to use phone calls and letters to communicate with consumers, resulting in worse outcomes for agencies and consumers alike.
The company fixes these challenges by providing a modern end-to-end operating system for collection agencies. And Aktos features full API integrations that enable it to work seamlessly with an agency’s existing technology solutions like dialers, payment processors, consumer portals, skip-tracing software, credit reporting, and more.
Plus Aktos’ workflow automation center acts as the “brain” of a collection agency and transforms the collections floor with minimal bottlenecks, task automation, and intuitive software that employees love. By increasing collector productivity, Aktos provides an 80%+ reduction in menial work, allowing agency owners to grow their agencies without growing their backend staff.
Aktos is being led by a team of entrepreneurs and experienced Silicon Valley engineers. And CEO Peter Wang and CTO Daniel Pao co-founded Aktos to modernize the collections process, and to make it as easy and painless to pay off a debt, as it is to buy products online.
KEY QUOTES:
“Most collection agencies are small businesses run by honest, hard-working folks who play an underappreciated yet critical role in the US economy. But they’re being crippled by their outdated software, and are forced to rely on DOS-based and AS400-based systems that were built 20-30 years ago.”
— Aktos CEO Peter Wang
“It’s all about the consumer experience. Consumers don’t want to deal with collectors that accidentally call them at the wrong times, or that send them letters when they prefer email. They want validating and paying off their debts to resemble a modern eCommerce experience—no one wants to mail in checks and open letters anymore. At the end of the day, Aktos makes the collections process more efficient and compliant for collectors, and in doing so facilitates a more streamlined and positive customer journey for repayment.”
— Aktos advisor Justin Miller, former President of Vital Solutions
“I’ve been waiting 20 years for a software like Aktos to come along. With my old collection software, my vendor treated me like I was lucky to be their customer because they knew I had nothing better to switch to…until Aktos.”
— Debt Co Collection CEO Diane Stamatelatos
“With Aktos, we’re beginning to see our collection rates go way up, and our back-office costs go way down because the system is so good. Our collectors love it too. Normally it takes a new agent weeks and months to learn the software. With Aktos, they can pick it up in an afternoon—that’s a 90%+ improvement in collector readiness.”
— Christopher Rehkow, President & CEO of NCS Plus
“Aktos is supporting the ARM industry’s entrance into the modern SaaS era. Debt collectors are a vital part of the US economy as they lower the risk and total cost of lending, thus increasing the pool of eligible borrowers. Yet debt collections agencies have been forced to run their businesses on clunky on-premise software from the 2000s. Aktos offers an API-enabled, data-driven system of record that streamlines consumer communications, increases automation, and ultimately facilitates increased agent productivity. Crew Capital is proud to be supporting Aktos as they bring modern digital transformation to the ARM industry.”
— Dylan Reider, Partner at Crew Capital
